Flint water crisis: Anger over absent officials at congressional hearing

For nearly two years, the simple act of drinking a glass of water has been fraught with danger in Flint, Michigan.

On Wednesday, policymakers 500 miles away started delving into why that’s the sad truth, who is to blame and what can be done about it.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform focused on Flint’s water crisis, one that multiple lawmakers characterized as a failure of government on all levels — local, state and federal. The hearing’s stated purpose was generally “to examine the ongoing situation in Flint” and specifically “to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s” actions to date.

In his opening remarks, committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz introduced several documents suggesting that EPA officials had not acted quickly enough in Flint in the face of numerous warnings, some of them from inside the agency.

But he didn’t reserve his critiques only for those in federal agencies. He also called out Darnell Earley, who was Flint’s state-appointed emergency manager between 2013 and 2015. According to Chaffetz, Earley was invited last week to testify before the committee, but told the panel on Monday night that he would not and his lawyer refused a subpoena issued Tuesday.

Earley’s attorney, A. Scott Bolden, told CNN Tuesday that the subpoena “borders on nonsensical” and claimed his client needed more time to prepare and travel to the nation’s capital.

Chaffetz promised another Flint hearing in the coming weeks, and he insisted Earley will be there.

“We’re calling on the U.S. Marshals to hunt (Earley) down and give him that subpoena,” the Utah Republican said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat, thanked Chaffetz for arranging the hearing but challenged him for not calling on “the most critical witness of all,” Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, to testify. The Republican governor appointed Earley and — since the state had taken control of Flint due to its budget woes — ultimately was in charge throughout the crisis.

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